It is often desirable to retard normal growth in various trees and plants to obtain dwarfed, mature trees and plants. Such dwarfing is frequently desirable for ease of harvesting desired portions of the plant, and in many species dwarfing produces an earlier maturity and increased crop yields. One previous way of obtaining desired dwarfing was to select smaller breed varieties of plants. Also, chemical sprays have been used in the past, such as tri-iodobenzoic acid, and certain quaternary ammonium chlorides and hydrazides, but these chemicals have not always proven entirely satisfactory.
It is also often desirable to stimulate plant growth which increases flower, fruit, seed set, and production.